Kristy A. Belton issue of creating a CBI programme has become increasingly politicised with the opposition political party pledging to introduce a CBI programme if elected, and the current administration resolutely denying the “sale” of citizenship.78 In general, however, because CBI programmes generate a good portion of government revenue for those countries that have them,79 there is muted public discussion on the perceived pitfalls of these programmes. CBI programmes thus typically only make headlines when non-CBI countries, such as the United States, raise concerns about people acquiring CBI citizenship to avoid government sanctions. Where public opinion has been more vocal in some Anglophone Caribbean countries is the issue of dual citizenship. The majority of countries in the subregion allow their citizens to hold dual citizenship, although a few place restrictions on its possession. For example, The Bahamas only allows dual citizenship through to age 21 when a person must then choose which citizenship s/he wishes to maintain. In Guyana, dual citizenship is only permissible if a person marries a noncitizen and acquires her or his second citizenship in that manner. A similar provision exists in Trinidad and Tobago, and in Belize, individuals who are naturalised citizens are unable to hold dual citizenship. Outside of these specific cases where the ability to hold a second citizenship is limited, most of the Anglophone Caribbean limits the political rights of their citizens if their second country of citizenship is not a Commonwealth country. This has been controversial in several recent general elections where representatives, and their opponents, have had their ability to run for, or hold, office questioned (Belton 2019). The general sentiment, given the large proportion of emigrants among many of these countries, is that the political rights of dual citizens should be limited, regardless of whether or not the individual holds her or his second citizenship from a Commonwealth country. Finally, as this report notes, gender inequality exists in some nationality provisions in the areas of adoption, spousal and filial transfer.80 These restrictions are most prominent in the case of The Bahamas, which has been the focus of campaigns to change unequal nationality laws at the grassroots and international levels. The Bahamas held a Constitutional referendum in 2002 and 2016 to place gender inequality in nationality matters to the public vote. In the 2016 referendum voters were asked whether they wanted to insert “sex” as a prohibited ground of discrimination in the Constitution. They were also asked to vote on whether or not they wanted to remove the gender discriminatory provisions regarding female citizens’ inability to extend their citizenship to their noncitizen husband or to transfer their 78 Current Prime Minister and leader of the United Labour Party, Ralph Gonsalves, is adamantly against instituting a CBI programme, however. See Jamaica Observer (2019), The Daily Observer (2018) and iWitness News (2020) for further information on the debate surrounding CBI in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, especially in light of the upcoming elections. 79 Dominica, for instance, relies heavily on its CBI programme for revenue. See IMI (2018). 80 Note that the majority of these countries’ Independence-era provisions regarding citizenship acquisition for the spouse of a deceased citizen, or someone who would have become a citizen upon Independence but for his death, is highly gendered. That is, this provision generally only applies to the noncitizen female spouses of male citizens and not to the noncitizen male spouses of female citizens (or those who would have become citizens but for their death). Since this report is focused primarily on the practices of the Post-Independence era, this gender discriminatory provision is not analysed in detail here. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2020/3 - © 2020 Authors 29